CHAPTER 6 — THE MAN WHO WASN'T A PASSENGER
CHAPTER 6 — THE MAN WHO WASN'T A PASSENGER
The Boeing dropped nearly four hundred feet before Malachi caught it.
The entire cabin seemed to float.
Oxygen masks swung wildly.
Luggage burst from an overhead bin.
Children cried.
Adults prayed.
The artificial horizon tilted hard left.
Malachi eased the yoke instead of pulling.
Exactly as Isaiah had taught him years ago.
"Never fight an airplane. Convince it."
The wings slowly leveled.
Captain Hale exhaled.
"Beautiful."
"You didn't overcorrect."
Amelia Rhodes smiled for the first time that night.
"He flies like Isaiah."
Then something unexpected happened.
A chime echoed through the cabin.
Not an alarm.
A call button.
Seat 42C.
Grace almost ignored it.
Then it rang again.
And again.
She hurried down the aisle.
A nervous young flight attendant pointed toward the back.
"That passenger insists it's an emergency."
Grace reached Row 42.
A quiet man in a gray hoodie looked up.
He had barely spoken during the entire flight.
"I need to tell you something."
Grace's patience was wearing thin.
"If this isn't an emergency—"
"It is."
He lowered his voice.
"The man who poisoned your pilots..."
"...is still on this airplane."
Grace's heart stopped.
"What?"
"I saw him."
"Who?"
"The fake maintenance technician."
Grace stared.
"How do you know he was fake?"
The passenger reached into his backpack.
He removed a small leather wallet.
Inside was an identification badge.
Federal Air Marshal Service.
"My name is Ethan Cross."
"I've been undercover since Atlanta."
Grace's pulse quickened.
"Why didn't you identify yourself earlier?"
"Because I wasn't sure."
"But now I am."
He opened a notebook.
Inside were seat numbers.
Times.
Observations.
"I've been watching one passenger."
He pointed.
Seat 17A.
Grace frowned.
"The elderly professor?"
Cross shook his head.
"That's what he wants everyone to think."
At that exact moment...
Seat 17A was empty.
Grace looked up sharply.
"When did he leave?"
A flight attendant answered.
"I thought he went to the restroom."
Cross's face drained of color.
"How long ago?"
"...Maybe ten minutes."
He was already moving.
"Lock every galley."
"Nobody opens a service hatch."
Grace grabbed his arm.
"What are you thinking?"
Cross looked toward the rear of the aircraft.
"The avionics compartment."
"The sabotage started underneath the cockpit."
"If he's still alive..."
"...he may be trying to finish the job."
Before Grace could answer—
A deafening metallic bang echoed beneath the cabin floor.
The airplane shuddered.
Warning lights flashed again.
Malachi nearly lost his grip on the controls.
Captain Hale shouted,
"What was that?"
Maintenance Control answered almost immediately.
Their voices were filled with panic.
"We've lost communication with the forward avionics bay sensors."
Another engineer yelled from across the operations room.
"Motion detector activated!"
Grace stared at Ethan Cross.
"You were right."
Cross didn't wait.
He sprinted down the aisle toward the forward service area.
Two off-duty police officers followed him.
Passengers flattened themselves against their seats.
The aircraft rocked again.
Then—
A muffled explosion sounded beneath the cockpit floor.
Not large enough to tear the fuselage apart.
But powerful enough to knock out several systems.
Every remaining navigation display in front of Malachi went black.
Only three instruments were still alive:
The standby attitude indicator.
The magnetic compass.
The altimeter.
Captain Hale's voice became unnervingly quiet.
"Malachi..."
"Yes, sir?"
"You are now flying a two-hundred-ton aircraft..."
"...using the same basic instruments your father learned with as a cadet."
Before Malachi could answer, Ethan Cross's voice burst over the cabin intercom, breathless and urgent:
"Grace!"
"I found him!"
"He's inside the avionics compartment..."
May you like
"...and he's holding a detonator."
END OF CHAPTER 6
